p0420 code came on while in mexico

hey guys, been reading a lot of helpful stuff on this site so thought id finally join up.

so to start, im driving through mexico right now in my 03 tacoma and the engine light came on.
managed to find a bloke with a code reader and it came up with p0420 which im guessing is a problem with the cat although i had heard lower quality gas can cause this problem? anyway we reset the code to see what would happen and i drove over 4 hours straight through the desert and it didnt come on till i reached a small town and i hit a speed bump a bit harder than i usually would which is similiar to how it first came on the day before (i was off roading when it first came on). my exhaust does have a bit of a rattle so im guessing that could have something to do with it, thoughts?

the car is from california and ive heard its easier to set off this code as there emissions
standards are higher, would that have anything to do with aswell.

im farely confident its still alright to drive for a while although i rather fix it to be safe.

any suggestions how to fix this would be great!

 

try the seafoam method then the cataclean method and or use guaranteed to pass.

 

That rattling that your hearing is probably comimg from inside of the catalytic converter. Its the filter that some metal that catalysts the carbon monoxide. It could clog the exhaust and lead it to bad things in the worst case scenario. You driving down to baja?

 

think hed be able to punch his cat and find out where the rattling is coming from?

 

yeah in baja south. i have to pick up my girlfriend in loreto in 2 days im going to high tail it there tomorrow. im guessing ill have better luck there with finding parts and all if i end up needing any. locals down here seem fairly nice so hopefully one of them can let me borrow some tools and see if i can sus out the rattling. might be best to check it out before it gets worse.

 

this might be a bit of a long shot but i looked at the air flliter a couple of months back and it was kinda dirty, not completely bad but definitely didnt look new. any chance that could of triggered it aswell?

 

If it gets clogged you can drill a hole on the cat converter. Helps the smoke exit and might save you it will be loud. I speak from experience haha. Yea nice are you road tripping across the US?

 

haha cheers for the advice might come in handy! yeah started in california and driving all the way to panama. built a camper on the back aswell. this car most likely wont be coming back to the US so worst comes to worst i might beable to get through with an after market one for a bit cheaper. just trying to sus out my options.

 

might give that a crack first, see how it goes before i start spending too much money.

 

Chop the co

Replace the cat converter with a pipe and sell the cat converter you can catch a good peso on those. Any muffler should be able to do it for you.

 

This will answer everything.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/addressing-some-common-misnomers-of-the-p0420-code.396763/